The new cultivar is a product of a planned breeding program by the inventor to produce new forms of Taxus x media. This new variety, hereinafter referred to as ‘SMNTHDC’, was discovered and selected by the inventor Timothy Wood at a commercial nursery in Grand Haven, Mich. in 2006. The new variety is a result of an open pollination. The female parent is the unpatented variety Taxus x media ‘Hicksii’; the pollen parent is unidentified.
After identifying the new variety as a potentially interesting selection, softwood cuttings were taken at the same nursery in Grand Haven, Mich. in 2011. The inventor continued controlled testing and propagation, assessing stability of the unique characteristics of this variety. At least seven generations have been reproduced and have shown that the unique features of this cultivar are stable and reproduced true to type. First public access to plants of the variety occurred during August of 2018 in the United States. This offer came directly or indirectly from the inventor, qualifying for the exception allowed under 102(b). Previous to this sale, although the variety may have been publicized in print, plants were not available to the public for propagation.